How to Solve Pixel 3 XL Speaker Imbalance

The Google Pixel 3 XL speaker volume problem that we’ve talked about a few days ago has probably been pretty annoying for many Pixel users these past few days.

Anyway, don’t you imagine that it’s the only issue you are supposed to deal with. The imbalance of sound likely hasn’t been nearly as annoying as the distortion that occurs when you play something at a low volume.

And when you are enjoying stereo speakers like on the Pixel 3 XL, you would expect that the two are balanced in terms of volume output. That’s just a dream, however, so you get why I am so mad.

Yes, it happened to me too. I know for sure that the speakers on the Pixel 3 XL have a pretty noticeable difference in volume output. And I am not the only one saying it.

Google’s official response

Google responded to the complaints and lets us know that this was actually an intentional decision. To be more precise, Google said it used “new amplifier technology with advanced speaker protection algorithms to push these speakers harder and really get every last bit of performance out of them.” Right now, the reply is quite far from what we were excepting to get.

We can only assume that Pixel 3 XL’s bottom speaker is possibly much larger than the top speaker, though a teardown that focuses on the speakers might be very helpful in this situation. This results in a sound imbalance which was also evident in the Nexus 6P or on the previous Pixel 2 XL. And what we know for sure is that it is far from pleasant.

What can you do?

With no magical software tip and most likely no update on the way to address the issue, I have only one advice. Suck it up! You can enjoy the good bass, minimal distortion, and pretty loud output when compared to last year’s Pixel 2 XL.

Can’t you really do it? I thought of that too! In such a case, it might be worth sending it in for a replacement.